Thursday, July 28, 2011

If you have played multiple Nancy Drew games, you might have noticed that there are different cell phones you get to use. I believe it was in The Haunted Carousel that Nancy gets to carry her first cell phone (I was thrilled over this when the game came out). Over the years, in order to keep Nancy up to date with technology, we have given her her share of upgrades. Take a look at a few of the phones she has used in the past. Can you identify which games these were in?One of my favorite things about the updated phones is the number memory. We no longer have to punch in every single digit, instead, we can click on a contact and it begins to dial instantly. In the newer games, other fun tid-bits were added, like cell phone games and the camera. Do you have a favorite cell phone Nancy has used?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

I decided to wear a hoodie sweatshirt today, despite the 70-degree weather. This odd clothing choice lead us to thinking of Nancy's clothing history.

In Secret of the Old Clock Nancy receives a disgusted remark about her attire, and Nancy's response was "I like this dress. It's very...flouncy", although you don't see it, you can imagine it it is either vintage (even for the 1930s) or is not expensive-looking. In several of the games where Nancy has her luggage with her (it often gets lost in transit), you can see some of her clothes in a suitcase like in Shadow at the Water's Edge: My personal favorite clothing moment is when Nancy gets to disguise herself in different pieces she purchases (or already has) in The Phantom of Venice. I remember being super thrilled to go undercover with a whole new look. It was such fun putting together some crazy combination! Now there is a new clothing moment in The Captive Curse, but I won't delve into that too much, I will let you discover what happens to Nancy's outfits. Do you have a favorite Nancy outfit moment? I'm sure there are plenty in the books as well.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

We have a new video up on our YouTube channel! Check out Postcards From Germany: Anja. This is the second installment of the little postcards series. Have you checked out our YouTube Channel? We have all of our game trailers up along with several extra videos, like the early making of Secrets Can Kill, interviews with Megan and Robert, the Detective iPad series, and of course our new video for The Captive Curse: Detective Packing Video.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Looks like the weekend puzzle was solved only yesterday on the message boards! Congrats for getting this one! Here's the solution:

[Starting at the top left, select every other letter going down, and left-to-right. For starters, T, then two down is H, two down would be E.] Now circulating to the right would get you P, then I and so forth until you reach the last column. Go back to the first column at the second letter down (O) and continue until you have this: [The Pink Sands of Sangre Beach] Ta-da!

On to the secret matters:

Look what I dug up! If any of you have played Stay Tuned for Danger, you might recognize the infamous drawer that is forever locked. Well, I unlocked it! (The method is a secret one that can only be done at Her Interactive). I picked up the key that did not make it into the game and unlocked Mattie's left desk drawer seen below:

It is a mystery why this was left out, perhaps to tease you, like it did me, but here are the contents. Voila! Fan letters to Rick Arlen:Keep it real!~Little Jackalope~

Thursday, July 21, 2011

How many times has Nancy received a threatening note? Too many to count I bet! It's a typical expectancy when there is a villain in the middle of a mystery story to have the heroine receive an anonymous threatening note. Although it may unnerve Nancy a little, it also piques her curiosity and excites her. Notes like these often are a sign that she is getting closer to the truth, and the villains are getting nervous and scared.The culprit is getting desperate to shake the detective off of the trail, and so creatively devises ways of attempting to scare Nancy away. After threatening notes usually comes "accidents" and attempts on her life. The closer she gets, the more dangerous it becomes for her.

Are you in the middle of a game? Have you just received a threatening note? If so, then great! You are hot on the trail! Keep it up detective, but be careful where you step next!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

There is a bag of chocolate cookies hiding in my drawer. Yesterday there were chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen... Today I have cookies on my mind.There have been a few cookies in the games, starting with Secret of the Scarlet Hand. Taylor Sinclair has a cookie jar sitting on his desk and he proudly offers his Oaxacan cookies to you. While they look tempting, it's best if you avoid these nasty "treats".While playing Danger By Design, Nancy gets to make mint chocolate chip cookies! Acquiring mint to add to the ingredients is a little hard, but it is totally worth it to imagine the sweet smell of hot cookies coming out of the oven. (These were baked incorrectly. To see what they look like correctly baked, check out the game.)Of course, we can't forget when Nancy ran the snack shack in Warnings at Waverly Academy! Making individual chocolate chip cookies in that little oven made me want to reach through the screen and take the tiny cookie from it's place on the foil. But alas, only my white-glove hand courser had the pleasure of wrapping its fingers over the freshly-baked dessert.I should probably stop daydreaming about cookies...and make it a reality. Look out desk drawer! Your cookie captives are going to be set free!~Little Jackalope~

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Today, while several office folk are out visiting at Casual Connect, I spent some time rummaging through boxes in a designated "storage" space. (It's really a cubicle that we dump boxes of games and such in.) There were a few copies of the games in German, Russian and French in the boxes.

I remember testing this game in French before it was finished. It was a lot of fun, except putting the snacks together was a bit hard because then you really need to know the difference between lait and laitue. Or something similar to those.

Twitter Quote contest is tomorrow! The prize will be a little different this time, so stay tuned tomorrow for more news.

~ Weekend puzzle #112 has a winner! Congratulations to Karson P. for correctly discovering the key word/phrase who was randomly drawn from all the correct participants! Karson will be notified with her promo code to download the prize, The Haunted Carousel soon. Here's the solution to the puzzle:

1. The name of the fourth character listed on the Character Profiles page of game #10 [Mary]2. #7 “______ a cemetery and a speakeasy” [Explore]3. #6 “Expose buried secrets and catch a thief ____-handed!” [red]4. #12 has a screenshot that is of Nancy’s blue ______. [roadster]5. Leela’s last name in #21. [Yadav]6. Fill in the blank from the downloads page “Legend of the Crystal Skull Wallpaper - ______ in the Garden” [Gargoyles]7. On game #15’s page Kane ‘______ is mentioned. [Okala]8. A traditional Japanese family Inn is called a ______. [ryokan]9. On game #23’s page, it says you will learn _____, tea ceremonies, and calligraphy. [origami]10. “_____ a Ghostly Legend and Find a Vanished Groom!” on game #19’s page. [Unveil]11. The first character on the Character Profile page of game #11. [Nigel]12. Coucou from #20 is a” ____ yellow headed Amazon parrot”. [double]

Friday, July 15, 2011

1. Solve the weekend puzzle below.2. When you think you have the right answer, email it to solved@herinteractive.com with the subject line "Weekend Puzzle".3. The prize? A digital download of The Haunted Carousel game!4. The time? Contest begins now and ends at 10am PST on Monday, July 18th.5. One winner will be randomly drawn from all of the correct entries by 5pm, Monday, July 18th. (We want to be fair and give everyone a chance.) :) Each contestant may only enter once.6. This contest is open to everyone.Here's the puzzle!Directions: Find the answers by looking through the “Games” pages on the web site. Take the first letter of each answer to gain the mystery word. Submit the mystery word to solved@herinteractive.com with the subject line “Weekend Puzzle”.

1. The name of the fourth character listed on the Character Profiles page of game #102. #7 “______ a cemetery and a speakeasy”3. #6 “Expose buried secrets and catch a thief ____-handed!”4. #12 has a screenshot that is of Nancy’s blue ______.5. Leela’s last name in #21.6. Fill in the blank from the downloads page “Legend of the Crystal Skull Wallpaper - ______ in the Garden”7. On game #15’s page Kane ‘______ is mentioned.8. A traditional Japanese family Inn is called a ______.9. On game #23’s page, it says you will learn _____, tea ceremonies, and calligraphy.10. “_____ a Ghostly Legend and Find a Vanished Groom!” on game #19’s page.11. The first character on the Character Profile page of game #11.12. Coucou from #20 is a "____ yellow headed Amazon parrot”.

*Note: Please don't post the mystery word on the message boards. The listed answers are ok to say as long as they are in spoiler code. :) Thanks!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

I've been pretty busy re-organizing some files and folders so that they are easier and quicker to find. During little breaks, I created a puzzle, work (very slowly) on a video, spied on a few artists and their work in progress (with a camera, and with permission). I always find it fascinating to learn what everyone else is working on.

One artist is fixing up a phone, another is working on a notebook, one is cleaning up the lighting on a few characters and another is playing with the texture of trees and shrubbery. It's a bit inspiring to see the work in progress, and I've been thinking about doodling some more, especially when I saw this old document:

Original notes and doodles from the making of The Haunted Carousel!Tomorrow's Friday, that means a new weekend puzzle, but this time it is another contest! Return tomorrow for more details, I'm not going to reveal any more secrets until then. ;)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Today I'm working on a secret project, so my nose is pretty much buried and my focus is completely (almost, really) on sounds, animations and logos. I shall take a break from this to share with you this fun little blurb:

Our Executive Producer wrote a blog post on a few insider thoughts and secrets from the original Secrets Can Kill! There is something in this post that I didn't know and was super excited to learn about. Don't overlook the video link at the bottom of his post where you'll get to see never-before-seen shots of this game, like this here: I suppose it is time to reveal the solution to last weekend's puzzle? Here's the maritime flags translation [VE-NS-RV-HI-ET-RC-MO-AU-NK-SE-EY-TH-SL-WI-IK-NG-EP-YI-LA] Now number those pairs (there are 19 pairs) like this [odd numbers, then even. Will look like this: 1,3,5,7 etc until you reach 19, then count them in evens 2,4,6,8, until you reach 18, the last even number] Now re-arrange them in numerical order (1,2,3 etc) and you will get this answer: [Vervet monkeys like playing with sea urchin.] a mention to Ransom of the Seven Ships.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Today I got to attend a meeting to review puzzle testing results. It's interesting to see the results of a puzzle that was created and hear how well a player solves it. Level of difficulties to keep in mind include

Was the puzzle hard to understand?

Can you solve it?

Did you understand why you solved it?

We also question whether the player likes the puzzle, or if they think it is relevant to the game and story. From here we work on fixing the problem areas, making it clearer, adjusting the difficulty, and enhancing the experience. There is a lot that goes into puzzle creation, and it takes people from every department to make it happen beautifully.

Speaking of puzzles, I must have created a toughie of a weekend puzzle, but luckily not too tough, because a couple of you have solved it! Hooray! One answer that I saw on the message boards was correct, yet the solution wasn't mentioned. I think I will hold off one more day from giving the solution so you can keep trying. ;)

Monday, July 11, 2011

It's Monday!! Hooray! This means a free wallpaper download for Ransom of the Seven Ships (image of the resort), and an oh so exciting picture of a moth. Yep, that's right, a few nerds here enjoy little excitements such as this: This guy was perched on the wall by our side entrance door. His wingspan was nearly the size of my palm! We believe he might be a blind sphinx moth because he has a secret pink under wing.

We have an even better excitement for you, though (but really, what could be cooler than touching a huge colorful moth on your way into a building?) Ok, a new video might be. There is a new video up on our YouTube channel called "Postcards from Germany" featuring Lukas from The Captive Curse! Check it out!

Hm, sounds like this weekend's puzzle has stumped many of you. *Insert mischievous evil grin here*. I suppose I will suppress allowing further brain agony by giving you a hint: Re-arrange the pairs.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

I got to take a peek at some character lip-syncing and animations today! It is so cool getting to see new characters moving and speaking for the first time! I love how the dialogue (words) are written and how their mouths move in sync while they move and gesture. Remember how Lukas holds his foot, or raises his hands while talking about the monster? Those little movements make the character who he or she is. Each character has his or her own unique set of movements, such as tilting the head, drinking a cup of coffee, for example. Anja really used her hands: Without these animations and lip-syncs, the characters might as well be trees, that happen to have a voice coming out of them...somehow.

Tomorrow is a regular weekend puzzle (no contest). Come back then for a little weekend brain teaser!~Little Jackalope~

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

I made a short trip over to the production department today to get a little inside peak at what's going on. One of our sound wizards was working on some sounds for ND25 and was able to take a break to tell me about it.

We have a huge sound library that she says can take a while to search through. When she finds what she's looking for, she takes it and inserts into the game. Sometimes it needs editing or mixing, or both.When I asked her what the hardest sounds at the moment to create were she said "Beeps are a little tricky because there are a lot of different kinds of beeps, and they are each distinct". The sound wizard also said "Ambient room noises are not that hard, they're just a little time-consuming". Have you ever stopped to just listen to the quiet noises of your surroundings? Things like a fan or the air conditioner turning on or off, creeks, bumps, and other little things that hardly grab our attention are important to make the game more realistic, and it creates an overall better experience I think.

Take a look here! I found this while coming out of the production department; Santa is in time-out.Twitter contest is today! Head over to participate for a chance to win a digital download game!~Little Jackalope~

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

After a three-day weekend we are back in the office! (Am I a nut for wanting to come back here?) Yesterday was the 4th of July, and for us Americans that meant Independence Day! Read the latest Dare to Play blog post on this.

A few of us came back to office ready to do a little rummaging and desk cleaning. I love it when this happens because there is always something fun to discover, especially when someone next door finds little poster art of a few of the games and gives them to me to decorate the walls of my cubicle. Love these! As for the weekend puzzle, it turns out that I wasn't clear enough in the post. (It says that this weekend puzzle "isn't" a contest.) As you can see, many of you posted the answer in a comment, and there are many comments! I apologize for this confusion, and I will make it more clear next time. (A note: I always like to state contests in the post titles, so always look for that as a big flag). Just about all of you got the answer correct, yay!

Here's the unscramble:[The name of the captain of the Seven Virtues Fleet] which is [El Torro (nickname), orJuan Ignacio de Santa Ana Domingo] This is from Ransom of the Seven Ships, which is currently our July special. Nice work sleuths, I suppose this was an easy one. ;)